Red apple, purple eggplant. Golden brown grains. Orange squash, green kale, white daikon radish. Red-blooded (hemoglobin) animals, green-blooded (chlorophyll) vegetables. All the beautiful colors of the rainbow are food for your heart and soul! You can classify all foods by their colors in terms of yin and yang to help you create a balance and become more centered.
Starting at one end of the color spectrum (or rainbow), the warm color RED is the most yang of all the colors. The colors then progressively become less yang and more yin, until you reach the other end of the rainbow with the cool color PURPLE or INDIGO, which is the most yin of all the colors. DARK SHADES of color are more yang than LIGHT SHADES of color, which are more yin.
Other factors — such as size, shape, and weight of the food, the direction that it grows (and whether its above the ground or below), the length of growing time, and the season, region, and climate of where it grew — can also be classified as mostly yin or mostly yang. By using all of these factors to determine whether a particular food is mostly yin or mostly yang, you can then use this information to balance it with other foods, and your current condition, and with the current situation around you.
Many foods have already been classified for you in such books as Zen Macrobiotics — enough to get you started on a macrobiotic diet of health and understanding. (See "Macrobiotic Table of Foods and Beverages" on page 115, Zen Macrobiotics, by George Ohsawa.)
But to really understand and practice the theory of macrobiotics, you need to study and apply your own Yin/Yang classifications to food, as well as to yourself and the world around you. George Ohsawa's book, Philosophy of Oriental Medicine: Key to Your Personal Judging Ability, explains how.
Related Articles:
My Notes On The Macrobiotic Centering Diet
Guidelines For Classifying In Terms Of Yin And Yang
Re-Reading Zen Macrobiotics
